3rd Sunday of Easter (4/22/2007)

Homilist: Fr. Donald Brick

Today is the Third Sunday of Easter, which means that the Easter celebration is behind us by three weeks; and if you are like me, you are tempted - or perhaps you have already given in – to fall back into the old ways of life that we tried to get rid of during the Lenten period. Our heart tends to go back to “normal” after big celebrations, and that is precisely what Peter and his friends seem to be about in today’s Gospel. Now after Jesus’ death and resurrection and their experience of that they went back to Galilee and decided to go fishing. It is interesting and this is third time Jesus appeared to His disciples after the resurrection. The first two were on Sunday, the day of the Resurrection itself, and a week later he appeared to Thomas and the others and called them to a deeper kind of faith.

It seems that perhaps this third appearance took place on another day of the week and not a Sunday. Perhaps it was Monday. This is significant because fishing and going back to the old ways – going back to “normal” - is significant. Jesus appeared to the apostles in the midst of their ordinary life. It was not just on Sundays but on the works days, when people really live and relate to one another in an ongoing way.

It is curious when Jesus appears to the apostles after the resurrection they do not always recognize Him. In fact, they seldom recognize Him right away. In today’s Gospel there are details through which Jesus associated Himself once again with the memories of the apostles. When they came the shore He gave them what? Fish and bread, reminding them of the miracle of the multiplication of the bread and fish in the Gospel stories. They could not experience or know who He was right away, but it was in sharing the Eucharistic elements or symbols of the Eucharist - the loaves and the fishes - that His disciples came to recognize Him. We are reminded by that detail that one of the places we come to know the Lord is where? At the Eucharist, when we gather around the Lord’s Table and He shares with us His Body and His Blood.

Jesus prepares the fish on a charcoal fire. This detail reminded Peter of something else in the Gospel of St. John. It was precisely at a charcoal fire in the courtyard that Peter denied Jesus three times. So around this charcoal fire in this Gospel story Jesus invites Peter the denier to become Peter the disciple, by asking Him - not once but three times: Peter do you love me more than these? And Peter was required three times to tell Jesus that he loved Him.

What are the conclusions we can come to in today’s Gospel? First, it is important for us who are believers to recognize Jesus in our ordinary life. There is nothing more ordinary than breakfast. It is the one meal at which we often eat the same thing every day, and it is usually for many of us from a box a very boring cereal. Jesus did not come to His disciples at this time at a supper in the upper room. But in breakfast. He came to them in Galilee in their hometown in the ordinary events. The Easter mystery should happen in our ordinary experience. We should not be too concerned about going back to “normal;” I do not mean going back to sin, but back to ordinary life, because that is how Jesus wants to come to us. Secondly, Jesus in an on going way wants to feed us abundantly. Jesus feeds them once again. Jesus is always feeding His friends, and we are who His disciples and friends are the beneficiaries of His generosity. Jesus wants to forgive us as He forgave Peter. He wants to feed us abundantly as He fed the apostles. Jesus says to each one of us here as He said to Peter, and through him to the others, “If you love me,” do something, “feed my sheep.” Having fed us, the Lord calls us to feed others. So in some sense the Easter mystery in our ordinary life is preached and symbolized in today’s Gospel.

The first reading is taken, as it always is in the Easter season, from the Acts of the Apostles. In the Easter season we need to be reminded that this book is not called the “Thoughts” of the Apostles, it is not called the “Good Wishes” or “Good Intentions” of the Apostles; it is called the Acts of the Apostles. The reason the Church gives us readings from the Acts of the Apostles in the Easter season is that she wants us to understand that what happened then is to happen now in our lives. We look at this reading for some guidance in our lives as disciples.

It tells that the court officers brought the apostles in and made them stand before the Sanhedrin and gave the apostles instructions. They said, “We gave you strict orders did we not to stop teaching in that name.” Ever since the time of Jesus and into the present the dominant culture in which the Gospel is preached is constantly telling the disciples of Jesus to be quiet and to stop preaching in His name. This is what we always hear about the big difficult issues, whether it be abortion or same sex marriages or the call to justice in our day to day lives or the call to peace in our relationship to other nations. Whenever the Church raises her voice to speak the truth of Jesus the dominant culture wants us to shut up and be quiet. This is what happens, and if it happened then, it will happen now and we should not be surprised.

In response to that call of the culture to silence and to not mention the name of Jesus or preach in His name, Peter (who always speaks for the Church) said in reply, “We must obey God rather than men.” In the Gospel, Peter is the one who spoke for the apostles, Peter is the one who jumped in the water ahead of them because his leading them and he was speaking for them and he speaks for us. In the face of the demand of the culture to be quiet, Peter and the apostles state that their obedience is owed to God and not to men. This is what disciples do, not just bishops and not just priests and religious but all faithful disciples of Jesus; we are never silent in face of opposition to the Gospel. We continue to preach and to teach in Jesus’ name. The Easter season is a time in which the Church calls us to courage and the forthrightness that we might engage the real world, the day-to-day life in which we live the Gospel of Jesus.

When the apostles are challenged further, Peter says, “We are witnesses of these things as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.” Those who know some Greek know that the word “witness” in Greek – “marturan” - is the same word from which we get the English word Martyr. The martyrs of the Church are those who witness with their lives for Jesus. The Scripture reading goes on to say, “They left the presence of the Sanhedrin rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.” That is what Christians do. We rejoice to be found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the Name. The Name is Jesus Christ and we are called Christian. We carry His name. The Acts call us to some very concrete realities in our lives.

Finally in today’s second reading from the book of Revelation to join our voices to the angels and saints in the heavenly Kingdom. This can be a difficult book for us to understand, because of its deep symbolism. In today’s passage from the 5th Chapter of Revelation, John in his vision experiences the praise that the angels and saints in heaven give to the Father and to the Lamb, to Jesus. When we gather around the table of the Eucharist every Sunday, or those who celebrate every day, we enter into that dimension. This is the reality we enter into as we gather for Mass today. With our hearts and with our lives we say, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and praise.” We do not only want to say those words with our lips but with our very lives. And again we join the angels and saints saying, “To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, to the Father and the Son moved by the Holy Spirit, we say, “Blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. Amen.”